Sweet for Sour
by XEmoMidnaX
Summary: "I'll tell you what Link," I smiled, the vacant expression in his eye portaying a world of possibilities would could amount to, "I'll take your Zelda off of you and in return, you take my ghost off of me. But be careful Link. She's a little... different."


**A/N: Hello all. It's been a while since I last wrote, and now my writer's block and school have passed, at least until September… So, here is my newest fic, another Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and The Legend of Zelda crossover. This time, a crossover of Echoes of Time (again) and Spirit Tracks. I decided to switch PoVs in this one, from Link to Sherlotta. Link's text will be** written in regular font** and Sherlotta's will be in bold font. The story is basically an idea I had when playing Echoes of Time and I began to wonder what the game'd be like if it was Hyrule's ghost Princess in the staff, not the Undead Princess. How would Sherlotta cope with Zelda's cowardice and playful nature, and how would Link cope with the Undead Princess' constant moaning and bad temper? Well, to find the answer… Read it… Read it, hehehe… **

Sweet for Sour

The light in the Forest

As the sad sound of a pan flute mingled with the howl of the wind amongst the trees, rattling the windows of the steam train, I sat in a clenched position on one of the matted, red seats of the carriage. I gazed into nothingness, my eyes affixed on a fly bobbing about at the far end of the carriage. If anyone happened across me, I'll bet they'd feel pretty worried for my sanity, for my face was frozen in a scowl, and my heart couldn't be penetrated by anything, due to a thick layer of angst protecting it.

Why?

Why did she have to make the quest evermore harder?

She was so skittish, too skittish for an adventurer.

She was scared of rats for Din's sake.

"Why?" I mumbled, keeping my teeth gritted and body clenched up. The buzzing of the fly was drowned out by the music outside. Her pan flute was still serenading, bringing the life in the forest together to listen to the symphony. It wasn't a symphony to me.

It was _irritating_ me. I was definitely going to snap if she didn't stop playing soon, and I seldom lost my rag at anyone.

"_You're a coward Princess. I nearly died because a rat was scampering by."_

"_Well Mister Hero, perhaps you should be a bit quieter."_

"_Perhaps YOU should grow a backbone!"_

"_Stop accusing your Princess of cowardice!"_

"_Stop denying the truth!"_

That was when she'd grabbed the snake whip and brought it down across my face, leaving a deep gash across my cheek. Though the red potion I'd consumed had worked its magic on me, it still stung when I thought about it. Neither of us had spoken of the event since. We hadn't spoken to each other at all, and that particular argument had happened two days ago. The discomforting silence hung low in the air, choking me with the unnerving feeling it gave me. It seeped in throughout the train's compartments, stalking me, making me feel somewhat insane. A shiver went down my spine, and I felt obliged to go and stand outside, listening to the eerie whispers of the wind in the trees.

**I wasn't scared of Chimeras, but I was scared of losing my Ivan. To be quite frank, I felt that the beast was going to rid me of him soon, and that really discomforted me. The hybrid was a wrecking ball and it was clobbering up my heart. The floor was deadly, the remains of the Elemental strewn all over it. If one of them slipped, especially Ivan… It was a terrible thought and I averted myself from it.**

**If he died…**

**If any of them died…**

**If any of them died, especially him, and then I found out that the book I was eying on the shelf at the far end of the DIDN'T tell me where the crystal mine was, then I would kill the Chimera with the device I picked up in the graveyard, and then smash it. Then feed it to the next monster I happened across, and then kill that monster and bury it in the graveyard. **

**If it did, I'd still kill the Chimera with the device. I'd just let the device survive, until it slipped up somehow. And it would.**

"**Sherlotta, it's safe for you now!" **

**I snapped out of my murderous funk and looked upon the brunette Clavat, who was wiping Chimera blood off of his sword with his bare hand. I think I saw its dinner in the mangled corpse the other three were looting, and it wasn't a pretty sight. **

"**Good…" I choked, looking away from the heap of gore that was, in life, a monster, and stepping cautiously across the expanse of the room in the Library, taking great care as not to step into something vomit inducing. I was a little peeved that I hadn't got to kill something with a 'precision device', for my sense of dark humour mostly entailed annoying stubborn little ghosts with attitude problems. It seemed fate that the curse in the graveyard was hidden in the object I wished to receive, and that we'd have to drag her from one end of the earth to the other in an attempt to stop some immortal Clavat, like myself only evil, from ending life as we knew it. I was her mistress, despite being a lesser in ranks, a mortal and weaker than her. I thanked the Crystal Core for making me immortal one-thousand two-hundred years before the little Undead Princess in the device was born. **

"**Sherlotta go off on tangent again?" the seemingly distant voice of Are Gent, a forest dwelling Selkie girl asked, her vocals clogged up with curiosity. I wondered who'd taught her the word 'tangent', for she had only learnt the basics of speaking and nothing else. And I also wondered why they'd taught her it? Perhaps it was because of my habit to go off onto one?**

"**Nah, Sherlotta's just being herself," Ivan grinned cheekily at me. I loved that smile; I had done since he was a baby. He ruined the moment though, by adding: "right mum?"**

"**Nngh, yeah…" I mumbled, a little embarrassed at being called 'mum'. In truth, I wanted to be his mum, and I felt like it. But then again, most of the women in the village did, and I'd overhead an argument with Tratt and Toumli about it. I decided to leave the thought and find the book that gave us access to the mine. After all, the putrid stench of rotting flesh was bringing disgusting mucus up to the back of my throat and was slowly forcing me to spew. **

"**Perhaps a book on crystals?" the Yuke man in our team, a magician scholar named Prohem who had happened across our part of the world by chance on an exchange program with his magic academy, located in a city named Rebena Te Ra. Apparently, the academy was once a crystal temple, many years ago, thus making the Yuke an expert on the things that disappeared all those many years ago. However, his knowledge wasn't vast enough for this puzzle, so it seemed.**

"**Well, if you can find some in the ancient tongue…" I began.**

"**Yes, yes," the annoyingly high pitched voice of my 'dear little sister', the Undead Princess butt in rather rudely. I sighed, purposely and rather agitatedly; just to show her that I really didn't appreciate her butting in or talking on the whole. Her voice was irritating me beyond my limit, and I could lose my temper quite easily. She didn't shut up though, much to my disappointment. "The Crystal documents ceased to exist after they disappeared in the ancient times. If some exist, they'll most certainly be in that language. If you cannot read it, but Sherlotta can, it's likely that information on the mine will be there."**

"**Thanks Captain Obvious," I mumbled, picking out that book I was eyeing. I could feel Ivan, Prohem and Are Gent breathing down my neck as I pulled back the moth eaten cover. As for the Lilty, Keri Ann, she was too short and had to make do with going without. Yes, the book was in my tongue. Even though Prohem was well educated, and he could unleash his intelligence on the illiterate Are Gent a hundredfold, not even he could read it. **

"**Waaait…" I began, peering at the title printed on the first page, "Fishing Fools Monthly!" Prohem and Ivan immediately began searching the bookcase again, both muttering irritably. I could see an evil grin flash across Keri Ann's face. She knew that I'd snuff ghostie out if she'd led us astray, and the Lilty didn't take much of a fancy towards her either. It was annoying that Ivan and Are Gent DID like her, and Prohem was indifferent. However, I had a growing feeling that this book was the one, much to my disappointment. I flicked through the pages, skimming the text for an answer.**

"**Milady, as fascinating as two thousand year old fishing tips are, shouldn't we be looking for the location of the mine?" the Undead Princess asked.**

"**Shut up," I snapped, looking through an article on 'good baits for a mean fishy meal'. I hoped that eight hundred year old temperamental spectres were on the list. I flicked over to the next page on 'fish type monsters and where to find them'. Perhaps Sahagins or Electric Jellyfish were in the mines? **

"**Hmm, lets see… Giant Fish found in Rela Cyel… Nooo… Uhm… Electric Jellyfish, found in the Aqueducts in the centre of the plains, the ice mountain, west to the town, and THE CRYSTAL MINES IN THE FAR SOUTH EAST CORNER OF THE PLAINS BY THE RIVER BELLE! Oh yes, jackpot," I grinned to myself.**

"**Now we go town first, maybe new equipment for strength, then we go mines?" Are Gent suggested. **

"**Yes, indeed we must power up if possible. Let us go to the town," Prohem affirmed.**

"**Sherlotta," Ivan whispered to me, "don't beat anyone up."**

At least further into the forest was peaceful, without the flute playing or the unwanted pangs of guilt that the train gave me. I felt an aura of serenity given off by the soft winds that rustled the leaves. The moon peeked out through the matted overgrowths of the forest canopy, sending an array of silver lights filtering through the leaves, black in the moonlit depths of the forest. The track was still there, meandering through various pathways. I didn't want to leave it, because at least I had a chance of getting back to the train if I got lost. I kept my weaponry at arms, though the Skulltullas who made their homes in the twisted branches of the trees were seemingly quiet that night. Zelda's music had probably driven them away, or else serenaded them into settling down and listening. Maybe Skulltullas were good at heart, and only attacked to protect their families? To a spider, the Spirit Train was probably pretty demeaning. Like a giant wooden monster intent on killing them. I decided to blot out the fact that it was one of those, so my view on Skulltullas changed due to trickery of the mind. I found myself wandering into the depths of the forest, my legs not co-operating with the rest of my body. As the train track disappeared into the black and the leaves became so dense that the moon no longer filtered through, I began to realise how little I cared. I just needed a little freedom, away from a quest that seemed to drag on for millennia, filled to the brim with ordeal and suffering, and away from annoying ghost Princesses with no backbone.

"Free…" I whispered into the lifeless world around me, the darkness that covered my body like a shroud. I walked forward, my eyes closed to enhance the fact that for a while, I was no longer trapped in an adventure. Then I felt a sharp, burning pain in my nose as it came into contact with the floor. As a reflex my hand came up to my face, which only smeared the blood I could feel trickling out of my nose all over my face. I screamed in agony, though the nothingness was too dense for the life on the outside to possibly hear my whim. I was alone.

Vaguely in the distance, I could just make out a dim, bluish glow, tinting the trees and other vegetation around it. My mind, overwhelmed by the pain that seldom faded in my nose, automatically thought 'faerie' and my body lunged forward into the eerie glow. When I realised my assumption was wrong, I was too late… My eyes snapped open when my hands touched solid ground. It was damp with stagnant rain water, though not so wet that one would be drenched on contact. The bricks were set out in a mosaic pattern on the floor, and the moon was reflecting off their rain touched surface. Blood, though not as much as before, still trickled onto the floor, making splattering sounds, mingling with the rain water and going thin. I placed both my palms, grazed and stinging, on the ground and hoisted myself up, catching a glimpse of myself in a nearby puddle. I backed away from my reflection, shocked by how mauled my face looked with a broken nose and a gash from the whip to top it all off. I had a blood moustache, which wasn't very attractive, and to be frank, was quite gruesome. I bent down to the puddle and began to wipe away the blood, a sharp pain coursing throughout my nose whenever I touched it. Luckily, the flow of the blood had been staunched and all I had was a slightly red upper lip and a painful, crooked nose. I looked around at my surroundings now I looked a little presentable. There were two stalls in the plaza, one that seemed to host weaponry and armoury, and another that seemed to be a blacksmith's workshop. Down a passageway, between the workshop and a moat, were a few more stalls, none of which seemed to show any hints as to what they were. No-one was around, but it was clearly not an abandoned town. The fact that it was about two in the morning was probably the reason why there were no residents around. A staircase under a bridge led to the upper part of the town, though I couldn't see much in the dark. I began to ascend them, wiping blood off of my tunic as best as I could. Something made me stop in my tracks though, paralysed to the steps in fear. Being paralysed in fear wasn't very heroic, and I felt ashamed whenever I did. I was in uncharted waters, however, and the noise I could hear could be anything, any monster, any person… As I began to hone into the noise, I realised it was a voice… A voice talking to itself, muttering something in a disgruntled tone. It was a girl's voice, sweet and soft. I'd never heard this voice before in my life, though that was probably because I was no longer in Hyrule. Now feeling somewhat safer, being able to analyse what the noise was, my legs allowed me to move again. I stepped forward, looking only directly in front to try and spot the girl. As a result, my foot came into contact with a twig of some sort, sending a huge cracking noise into the almost silent night. The muttering stopped, replaced with a gasp. I flinched as I heard the screeching of a chair on the ground and then light footsteps advancing towards me in the darkness…


End file.
